Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based treatment with over 115 randomized clinical trials. ACT is grounded in emerging clinical science that demonstrates the broad utility of mindfulness and values in human wellbeing. ACT is a hybrid therapy, bringing together aspects of mindfulness, Gestalt therapy, and humanist-existential thought, all organized under a contemporary contextual behavioral framework. The paradox upon which ACT is founded is that radical acceptance of what cannot be changed empowers us to recognize and change the things that we can. The ACT approach is about embracing necessary suffering in order to make more committed, life-affirming choices and live in accordance with deeply held personal values.

Day 1 will focus on self-care and self-compassion from an ACT Perspective

The modern world has eliminated many sources of suffering. We seldom die from cholera or smallpox. In the developed world we die from the stressors: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease. We drink, eat poorly, and are often chronically sleep deprived. We stress out. We stress about war, the economy, work, relationships, the past, and the future. We stress about our ability to tolerate stress! All this stress takes a toll on our bodies, but not just our bodies.

In this workshop, we will briefly introduce well-established life-style factors that contribute to depression, anxiety and many other forms of mental illness. We will introduce small changes by which every person, no matter how ill, no matter what circumstance, can begin a steady program of harm reduction that makes more abundant living possible.

Health care is stressful work. Health care workers need a life hack too! This will not be an abstract examination of factors. This work will show how these life-style changes can distress both healthcare workers and their clients.

Day one of this workshop will not be a mere academic endeavor. The workshop will be experiential from start to finish! We will examine the special place of self-care in the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model.

Imagine for a moment, the face of someone you love with all your heart. Now, perhaps something harder: imagine that you were someone you loved like that. What kindness and care would you offer?

We will look within and find the deepest kindness. We will practice applying that kindness to ourselves and discover the ways that cultivating a persistent pattern of self-care can enrich all other areas of valued living, including the ways that it can transform and empower our work with clients.

Day 2 will focus on the Application of the ACT Model to Addiction and Co-Occurring Disorders

On day two, we will bring the tools acquired on day one, along with the full ACT model, to bear directly on clients with trauma, addiction, and co-occurring psychological disorders. ACT provides a trans-diagnostic model. We will introduce new worksheets and interviews that can be used with a wide variety of client difficulties. The workshop will be experiential in focus and will provide a set of tools and skills that participants will be prepared to use immediately following the workshop. We will show how the interface between mindfulness and values work in ACT can promote life enhancing change and powerful therapeutic alliance.

OBJECTIVES

Learning objectives will be taught through both direct teaching and through the use of clinical examples. By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

Identify basic lifestyle factors that are known to exacerbate or sometimes even cause psychological suffering.

Understand core concepts of the ACT Model.

Use interview techniques to cultivate self-compassion and self-care.

Use new values and commitment exercises and use acceptance and mindfulness exercises that compliment them.